Ian Bell has been dropped from the England squad to face Pakistan in the forthcoming one-day and Twenty20 series.

The batsman had a miserable Test series in the UAE, scoring 0, 4, 29, 2, 5 and 10 in his six innings and has been left out of the limited-overs squads in favour of Somerset's Jos Buttler and Yorkshire's Jonny Bairstow.

The 21-year-old Buttler has been in fine form for the England Lions tour of Sri Lanka, scoring two centuries in five innings. Bairstow has not been in quite such fine fettle for the A side, but impressed with a couple of feisty ODI innings against India last summer.

Tim Bresnan will also return to the international arena after injury, although his participation in the series will be subject to his fitness following an elbow operation, while England's spin options have been increased by the addition of the uncapped Hampshire left-arm spinner Danny Briggs.

Kevin Pietersen, who like Bell endured a difficult time in the Test series, will be act as opener in the 50-over games.

"He is going to be opening the batting for us in this series, and that should be really exciting to watch," said the England coach, Andy Flower. "We started with him in that position in the World Cup, and unfortunately he got injured and had to go home early.

"He's a very, very fine cricketer – a very dangerous cricketer – and someone we'd like to give the option of facing as many balls as possible in the limited-overs game. If he stays in long enough, he will win games for us in that position.

"It hasn't worked out well for him at number four recently, but I'm really excited to see him embrace the challenge of opening."

Pakistan have called Shahid Afridi into their squad and rewarded Azhar Ali for his fine Test form. The uncapped, hard-hitting batsman Awais Zia also made his way into the Twenty20 squad

England play the first of their four one-day internationals against Pakistan on 13 February and the 50-over series will be followed by three Twenty20 matches on 23, 25 and 27 February.